7 month old feeding ALL night. Help!

[whilewildeisonmine]

I am exhausted and feel like crying. DS2 has never slept longer than 3 hours and now that he's 7 months old I'm at the end of my tether. I feel like giving up.

He goes to sleep at 6:30 (DP has started giving him a bottle of formula for this last feed to give me a break when he's back from work and so that I can read DS1 a story before bed). He'll then wake after about 45 minutes, sometimes he'll be settled if we give him his dummy and a cuddle but I'll mostly end up bf him to settle him back down. More often than not he won't settle and we'll end up bringing him downstairs so that he doesn't wake DC1 and he'll eventually drop off. By 9pm he'll wake to bf again, again at 11pm and around 2am and then at 4am and 6am. It's not a case of feeding him and popping him back in his cot- he needs to be cuddled back to sleep every time so usually by the time he's awake for his next feed I've only been asleep for an hour.

If I bring him into bed with me he'll want to feed constantly, and often guzzles so much he is sick. If I dare to turn over he claws at my back and screams until I'm within easy reach again. He's falls asleep feeding and then bites me in his sleep.

I know the easiest way around this would be to end breastfeeding altogether, I stopped with DS1 around this age though and regretted it.

I'm desperate for any advice.

[stinkypants]

Hi there
Sounds really tough and familiar too. In the end I used to be very strict about how often and for how long ds could feed. He screamed for the first few nights but gradually got used to it. Then I would time the feeds and reduce by a minute then another minute etc until he stopped bothering to wake for such a tiny amount. At 7 months I think this is do able.
Hope things improve - be strong! You need to think of your health and sleep.

[DoItTooJulia]

Oh no, I totally recognise this. I did stop feeding at this age precisely because of this. My ds is now 18 mo and is still not a brilliant sleeper (unless he is diagonally between me and DH in the bed, digging his feet into my back and pushing DHs head off the pillow).

I did regret stopping earlier than I'd planned, but I was truly desperate for some sleep and to not be a human dummy. Tbh, stopping was really really difficult too. I went cold turkey, the only way I could seem to do it and it was heartbreaking.

10 months on I don't regret it. It's a distant memory.

Best of luck whatever you decide!

[fledermaus]

To be honest it sounds like the problem is more that he can't self-settle than that he's breastfed. If you stop breastfeeding, won't you still have to bottle feed and cuddle to sleep?

I'd start by getting him settling in his cot and staying there. Maybe do the 11pm feed as a bottle feed and then decide when you will next feed him - 3am? If he wakes outside of those times get your DP to settle him without feeding.

[Lion5711]

My ds2 is 7 months and is fairly similar. Its hard work, but for me personally my partner works crazy hours so if I switched it would just mean me getting up to do bottles! Whereas I can lie down and feed (not always the most comfortable doze!) he would stay on all the time but I slip him off after 10 mins or so. They know the best milk is produced in the nighttime!

[whilewildeisonmine]

Thank you for your replies. He's got chickenpox at the moment so I'm sure that was a contributing factor to his constant need for closeness, poor thing! When he's better I'm going to aim to get him down to 2 feeds during the night using the advice I've had. Thank you :)

[callamia]

My seven month old is similar. Although he sleeps ok until about 11pm (you know, when I want to go to sleep). Right now, he's teething and I think separation anxiety is starting to happen. It's not a great mix, but his ability to settle has disappeared. I don't have any advice, although I have found that bringing him in with us sometimes gives us an extra hour or so.

Poor thing with the chicken pox. I hope he's feeling better again soon.